Discover the fascinating world of genetic genealogy! Written for the non-scientist, YGG is the best source for unbiased news on the major genealogy DNA testing companies.
Written by CeCe Moore, an independent professional genetic genealogist and television consultant.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

23andMe Receives $50 million and Drops Price to $99 in Bid for One Million Customers

23andMe Raises More Than $50 Million in New Financing

The good news just keeps coming in the genetic genealogy world! Just think what this will mean for all of our research...a pool of ONE MILLION customers to fish for relatives! If you have been wondering what to get for the holidays, here it is!

Company Sets Growth Goal Of One Million Customers, Reduces Price to $99 from $299

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – December 11, 2012 –23andMe. Inc., the leading personal genetics company, today announced it
has raised more than $50 million in a Series D financing. Participants
in the financing include Yuri Milner, a new investor, as well as
existing investors Sergey Brin, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, New
Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and MPM Capital. This investment
will help the company achieve its growth goal of one million customers.

The Power of One Million People
Expanding the company’s ability to reach and serve one million
individuals supports 23andMe’s goal to revolutionize health and
wellness. It also will accelerate 23andMe’s ability to create a powerful
platform that enables researchers around the globe to make meaningful
discoveries significantly faster than is currently possible. With this
expansion, 23andMe, which currently has more than 180,000 customers,
will aim to:

Broaden access for people seeking to manage their health and
well-being through direct access and greater understanding of their own
genetic data.

“A community of one million actively engaged individuals will be
transformational for research. A community of this magnitude will
improve researchers’ ability to quickly answer questions about genetic
function and the role of environmental factors. In addition, it will
enable researchers to understand medication efficacy and side effects,
in both medications that exist today and medications are that are in
development,” Wojcicki added.

Broadening Access: Lowering Price to $99
The Series D investment, combined with rapidly decreasing costs
associated with genetic testing technologies, enables 23andMe to reduce
the price of its Personal Genome Service to $99, effective immediately.
The company will continue to evaluate optimal pricing strategies.
The investment also enables 23andMe to expand the necessary
infrastructure to support growth in its research and operational
capabilities, including product development, genetic research, software
development, recruitment and marketing.

About 23andMe
23andMe, Inc. is the leading personal genetics company dedicated to
helping individuals understand their own genetic information through DNA
analysis technologies and web-based interactive tools. The company's
Personal Genome Service® enables individuals to gain deeper
insights into their ancestry and inherited traits. The vision for
23andMe is to personalize healthcare by making and supporting meaningful
discoveries through genetic research. 23andMe, Inc., was founded in
2006, and the company is advised by a group of renowned experts in the
fields of human genetics, bioinformatics and computer science. More
information is available at 23andMe.

here's a question from someone (me!) who just ordered a genographic 2.0 kit. is there anything about that kit that justifies it being twice as much as 23andme's kit and service? (i'm a guy, if that's relevant.) i'm pondering returning the geno 2.0 kit unopened, much though i might like to be part of the research aspect of it. . .

The Geno 2.0 kits has Y-DNA SNPs that have never been researched that will rewrite the Y-SNP tree. So, if you have never done any Y-DNA testing, then the Geno 2.0 test should give you a lot on info on deep ancestry. It really is more for deep ancestry and 23andMe is more focused on cousin finding and more recent ancestry. (I think the jury is still out on the test though since it is brand new with the first results for men only coming out yesterday.)

thanks much. i'm more interested in deep ancestry, so for now i'll go with what i've already ordered. the improved price point makes me more likely to be interested in trying 23andme in the future, though.

They are hardly going to increase the size of their pool overnight. At $99 I wonder if they are going to make a profit for their investors. Furthermore as a customer of FTDNA and 23andme I think 23andme is less friendly with the autosomal test, you can't see your match details unless the other party agrees and I have folund that a large percent won't even respond to your invitations so having 1,000 matches is a meaningless thing. At least with FTDNA you can see more detail. I would use 23and me as a check test which at $99 is about all it is fot for. You get what you pay for.

Family Tree DNA expects those transfer kits on hold to be in the system by the end of the year from what I was told on the phone last week. I'm waiting too, but it will be worth the wait, because, as someone else posted here, 23andme doen't allow you to see anything on your matches unless they agree and while I have had a 95% response rate at family tree dna my 23 and me response rate has been 50%, so it is pretty bad and can be very frustrating. On a brighter note though, I didn't do 23andme for the genealogy part--rather for the medical info side and now I'm purchasing a test as a gift for someone who wants to ferret out their Native American ancestrys which the new upgraded ancestry tool at 23andme does a nice job of now IMHO!. :)

Just note that 23andme migth do a lot for medical research and dna but not a great deal for genealogy. If you want SERIOUS henealogical dna you don't go to 23andme you go to FTDNA. This price will probably draw many genealogists who will not realise until too late that 23andme do not have all the genealogical answers and that thyey have to start over again.

Although AncestryDNA continues to underwhelm me, I think 23andMe's price drop is a direct reaction. So if nothing else, Ancestry's entry to the market spurred some competition. In the end, the customers win!

Nonsense, lots of us here in Maryland have been tested. 1. Find an address in DC or a neighboring state where you can pick up a package, or in any state where someone will pick it up and send it to you from there. 2. Order test, give that address for shipping, and your own address for billing. There is no legal issue with Marylanders paying for these tests. 3. If you want to be absolutely legal, give your spit sample outside of Maryland. My Dad and I gave our samples in DC. 4. Return the kit. I don't think it even matters where it's mailed from, but you can always send it from outside of Maryland if you're concerned. Voila! It's that simple. And well worth the trouble.

Well, some people are lucky and then there's me! I had a 50% off coupon from my Coursera class and thought it was a terrific deal. So, I ordered it. They got my sample Dec 7. Now, the test is $50 less!!!! I really don't have $50 to throw away. Ah, well. The universe hates me. What else is knew?

No luck! 11 Nov 2012. It took them several days to send the kit and about a week for it to get here. I don't go into town everyday, so sent it off 30 Nov. It got there, 7 Dec. Oh, just noticed my typo: knew should be new. I think if I'd not bought the kit until 26 Nov, I might not have sent it in yet. Especially with this case of the crud I have which is sloowwllyyyy improving. Well, off to FTDNA to see what is new.

Yes, there is. If your specific interest is your surname line, then you definitely need the Y-DNA test from Family Tree DNA. It tests STRs which are informative for genealogical time. 23andMe is an autosomal DNA test primarily that for Y-DNA only provides the haplogroup, which is informative for deep ancestry. The FTDNA Y-DNA test is a very narrowly-focused, specific test that traces the direct paternal line only. It sounds like that is what you want, so definitely don't cancel it. Here is more info on that type of test: http://www.geni.com/blog/dna-testing-for-genealogy-getting-started-part-one-375984.html

Call me cynical but I'm curious about something. In light of hearing news (past several weeks) about the government wanting to DNA test individuals in the U.S. (obamacare), would a company such as 23andme (one who tests the medical side as well as the genealogical side) participate in recruiting individuals under the guise of genealogy for the purpose of helping the government?

OK, so a friend turned me on to this today and I'm excited. Question is: I'm doing my tree and my stepkids' tree. Do I need to do two for them: one sample from my stepson and one from my stepdaughter or will just the stepson provide what I need?

Sorry, I just saw this. Testing just one sibling will be informative for both of them. The information they would receive from the test will be very similar, except that the male will get the Y-DNA haplogroup, so test him first. However, since full siblings only share about 50% of their DNA, test them both if you can.

Maybe this is not the right place for the following question, but at the momment I couldn't find any better:If I do Y chromosome and Mt DNA testing, won't I only get to know where my fathers-fathers-....father came from (and mothers-mothers...mother), whereas all the 99.9999..% of the rest of my ancestors contributing to my other (autosomal) DNA will not be known?

Wouldn't whole genome sequencing be the only way to know where all of ones DNA came from?

Yes, Y-DNA and mtDNA are only informative of your direct paternal and maternal lines. The only way to find out about the other ancestral lines is to take an autosomal DNA test like 23andMe. (23andMe also includes the Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups, but that is not the main focus of their test.)

Sure, whole genome sequencing would be nice, but you can still learn a lot about your ancestral origins from 23andMe. For $99, you can't beat it!